Walking Happy Leads To Actual Happiness – How to Game Your Emotions With Body Language
Christopher Philip
A new study reports that when people walk with a more upright, happy gait, they actually begin to start feeling happier.
We’ve long known that our internal emotions produce appropriate facial expressions, postures, as well as other nonverbal behaviour. However, new research is discovering that the reverse holds true as well. That is, body language, including postures, gestures, and facial expressions as well as other nonverbal expressions actually control the deeper fabric of our internal thinking and emotions.
“It is not surprising that our mood, the way we feel, affects how we walk, but we want to see whether the way we move also affects how we feel,” say Nikolaus Troje, co-author of the study.
The current study involved prompting subjects to walk either in a positive or negative gait type. Initially the subjects were primed with words including “pretty,” “anxious,” and “afraid.” They then hopped on a treadmill where they viewed a screen displaying a gauge. The gauge moved left or right as the subjects’ gait got more upright (happy) or more slumped over (sad).
Even though none of the subjects were told specifically what made the gauge move, they still learned very quickly to walk the way in which the researchers wanted them to walk.
Following the treadmill, the subjects took a follow-up test measuring the number of words they could recall from the initial list.
The researchers found that the subjects who walked with a more depressed posture recalled more negative words overall and those who walked with a more happy posture remembered more positive words.
This, say the researchers, is evidence that our style of gait influences our brain processes and how we walk affects how we recall information. When we’re depressed and walk slumped over, negative information becomes more salient. The reverse is true for walking with an upright gait.
Research like this is pivotal in helping people who suffer from mood disorders including depression.
“If you can break that self-perpetuating cycle,” says Troje, “you might have a strong therapeutic tool to work with depressive patients.”
In short, happier people move their bodies differently than do those suffering from depression.
A quick and simple way to boost mood therefore results from avoiding a slumped-shoulder and less arm movement walking style. Instead, one should use a bounce in the step including an upright posture with the head held high.
Resources
Michalak, J., Rohde, K., Troje, N. F. How We Walk Affects What We Remember: Gait Modifications Through Biofeedback Change Negative Affective Memory Bias. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry. 2019. 46:121-125.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791614000809